Best Time to Gather in WoW

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Exceptions to the Pyramid - When Gathering Really Shines  

We do not think that gathering in general is good as a primary source of income. It is certainly better than doing dailies, but playing the AH, professions, and even some farm spots are much more profitable.  

However, there is one exception: new expansions. Supply and demand dictate the shape of the pyramid. A notable example of this is around an expansion release. Take a look at the "expansion time" pyramid:

The shape of the pyramid once again reflects what the general game-population is doing.  

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Nearly everyone is doing dailies and questing as they are completing the new content and trying to level up. When players are not leveling up, they are leveling their professions, which recently had the skill cap raised. Very few people are doing anything besides this. What is the practical application of this? 

The biggest thing to note is that gathering and crafting switch places on the pyramid. Everyone is trying to level up their professions! All of those people who never craft for gold but like to have max-level Blacksmithing for the perks are now all buying ore to power-level to 525. 

All the people who normally do dailies for gold are eagerly spending their hard-earned gold on items they can use to level their professions.

Due to the surplus of people all producing profession-related items, there supply crashes the price on the Auction House, and as a result very, very few crafters actually make gold by crafting around an expansion release.

Gathering ranks so highly around expansions because the very few people are mining or herbing (many do skin though since they are skinning quest mobs) and the demand for these items (especially ore) is ultra-high. Unusually low supplies plus extremely high demands drive ore price up. 

You can easily earn 500-1,000  gold per hour by mining right when Cataclysm (or the next expansion comes out). Here is a time-graph based on ore value:

Basically, for the first 3 months after an expansion comes out, you can actually make some good money from mining. Herbalism follows a similar shape but not quite as dramatic: herbs are more valuable around expansion release than normally,  but not quite as dramatic as mining. However, the drop off back to normal prices does not happen as quickly either. 

In fact, I find that herbs tend to hold their value to a high degree. It seems like if you have to choose between Mining and Herbalism (there are reasons for both approaches)  

Now, this will vary slightly based on your individual server, but these general patterns hold true in any server's economy: 

- Whenever a new expansion comes out, within the first few days new ore types (Obsidium and Elementium in Cataclysm for example) will hit a peak price. This will remain elevated for a solid week. 

- As soon as the first player hits 525 (or whatever the new cap may be) prices will take a sharp dive, as the distinction for being the first to the cap seems important to many players. 

- Until most players reach the new profession cap, the ore prices will still remain elevated. This takes about 3 months. Once players hit the leveling cap, demand starts to fade and ore prices level off (or slightly decline) for the rest of an expansion's life cycle. 

You can cash in by mining or herbing new herbs and then selling them for 500-1000% mark-ups over traditional ore prices (stacks of new ore often go for 100-300 gold depending on server). You can earn enough gold to last an entire expansion just by mining aggressively around release. 

If you want to take advantage of this phenomenon, there are two ways you can do it: 

- Keep mining all the time along with 1 other profession (recommended for casual players) 

- Keep 2 crafting professions most of the time (such as Jewelcrafting and Alchemy) and then drop whichever is cheaper to level (such as Alchemy) right before an expansion comes out. Mine like crazy once the expansion comes out, and once ore prices settle down, drop Mining and pick Alchemy back up (recommended for anyone who wants to take the time to do it).

Conclusion

Whichever you do is up to you. It is certainly not required at all to take advantage of the increases in price. If you are a really casual player, you can certainly skip over this strategy. However, if you want to rake in a 500+ gold an hour for the first month or so after an expansion comes out just by mining, this strategy is for you.

---> Next: Skinning Gold Guide 

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